Stu Bykofsky: The lawyer who found censorship obscene
AFTER a distinguished legal career, Michael Seidman may not relish my calling him the man who made Philadelphia safe for pornography, but it's mostly true.
AFTER a distinguished legal career, Michael Seidman may not relish my calling him the man who made Philadelphia safe for pornography, but it's mostly true.
The why is simple.
"I was not a censor," says the 69-year-old Seidman. "I was not going to shut a movie down." Same thing for the adult-book stores that littered seamier parts of Center City in the early '70s, when he was chief of D.A. Arlen Specter's obscenity unit. Although Seidman was a prosecutor, he saw himself also as a defender - of the First Amendment.
A Democrat born and reared in South Philadelphia, Seidman was hired in 1970 by Republican Specter.
Seidman had been practicing law a couple of years, had a good rep, and all Specter asked was that he avoid politics in the D.A.'s office. Seidman agreed, even though he had developed an interest in politics growing up at Passyunk and Moore as a friend of a kid named Vince Fumo.
The two of them had worked on Milton Shapp's first, unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 1966. Shapp ran against the Democratic machine, beat Robert P. Casey in the primary, but lost to Republican Raymond Shafer that November. True to his deal with Specter, Seidman steered clear of politics and wound up as a very successful criminal-defense attorney. Fumo continued in politics and wound up as a state senator - and a guest in the federal penitentiary system.
Sitting in a restaurant near his Center City condo, which is getting a makeover, Seidman poked the embers of the old days when Philadelphia's civic life was dominated by rulers and rogues far more colorful (and carnivorous) than today. Seidman wears a small, hip earring in his left ear. Graying hair curls over the top of his collar.
Growing up in Italian South Philadelphia was important to Seidman's development because the neighborhood then taught, and lived by, "respect."
Once, walking through City Hall, Seidman saw a guy from the neighborhood, a bookie, heading for a trial. Seidman made eye contact, but the man ignored him. The defendant later said that it might not look good for Seidman to be greeted by an accused criminal. That was respect.
Seidman had respect, but he didn't yet have much personality. Introverted, he went through three years of South Philly High without a date and was drawn toward law by a desire to learn to "perform."
Specter says he hired Seidman because he was "hardworking, efficient and cheerful." Specter was "a good employer," says Seidman, who served with an up-and-comer in homicide named Ed Rendell, who was "very people-oriented, easygoing and personable." They knew each other slightly, but got along.
That was not the case with Police Commissioner Joseph O'Neill, a straight-arrow Irish Catholic who hated moral rot and busted pornographers left and right, only to see Seidman prosecute only a few. Seidman was more interested in going after serious crimes, especially against children.
After four years in the D.A.'s office, Seidman left to become a defender, representing some of those he had previously prosecuted.
After retirement, Seidman lived in Margate for a while, but found it too slow. Now, with beloved wife Harriet, they live in town, walk all over the place, and Seidman is working on his second novel. The first, A Different Point of View, was somewhat autobiographical and a little mystical. There were sex scenes, but nothing really dirty.
Seidman's no censor, but he's no pornographer, either.
Email stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. See Stu on Facebook. For recent columns: